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It's been a while since I've posted any photos. Last month I took a week off of work to finish the drywall then Luke and I installed the floors. Somehow that didn't seem photo worthy. Anyway, the house is looking a lot better, but more importantly, we have heat. The radiant heat system is working beautifully and it's so nice to wake up to a warm house.

We finished the heating system on Wednesday night and used the rest of the long weekend to start on the kitchen. After the addition we had a decent amount of space to work with, at least compared to the 8'x9' space we started with.
We found time to assemble and install the cabinets, but still have a lot of finish work to do.
We don't have counters yet, but we're already cooking in the new kitchen. After three and a half months without a kitchen a spiral ham from Costco counts as a gourmet treat.

It's been over a month since I posted any photos. It's not just burnout or spending way too many hours at my day job. It's that we are at the slow and tedious part of the remodel. The last month has been spent running wiring, grinding glue off the floors, hanging drywall and insulating the attic. We still don't have a heating system, but having the attic and walls insulated makes enough of a difference that our little milkhouse heaters can keep it comfortable.
Having moved most of our interior walls created a lot of extra corners to tape.
Our current project is to tape all the drywall. The walls aren't too difficult because most of the drywall is new, but patching the holes in the ceiling is a slow and messy process. I took a week off from work to get the taping, texturing and painting done. Hopefully I'll have some good progress to show for my nine days off.

Labor day certainly lived up to its name this year. Luke and I arranged for a four day weekend to finish gutting the upstairs. We spent the first two days working on the floors. The subfloor is 5/8" ply overlaid with glued-down particle board.
The particle board does not work with hardwood floors or our radiant heat system so we pulled it all up in 2' sections.
This left a lot of glue on the floors so we'll have to rent a floor sander to clean it all up before installing the hardwood flooring. But the floors were a cakewalk compared to our other project. Our attic was insulated with shredded wood that had a low r value and was not safe for contact with can lights. After much debate we decided the best way to remove the insulation was to cut out the drywall down the middle of the house and rake it out through the hole. This was the messiest project we've ever done.
Twelve hours and seventy trash bags later we removed the last of the sawdust. I have to finish th…

It’s been two years since I walked into our house for the first time.It was Labor Day weekend and we were
scheduled to close on the house in an hour.I had never been in the house until closing day.Homes in our price range were selling quickly
and I was living 70 miles when Luke found a newly-listed ranch house.He looked at it during his lunch hour the following day and put in an offer immediately.The house had been on the market for 48 hours when our offer was
accepted.It was not the only offer; it
wasn’t even the only full price offer so I think we made the right choice in such a quick decision.I
had some pictures of the house, but I didn’t actually see it in person until
closing day five weeks later.When I
walked in the door for the first time it was a crowded and ugly as I had expected
from the pictures. The rooms were small
and boxy, the finishing materials were cheap and the whole house was dirty and
dated.I had been prepared to hate the
house and I was not disappointed.But
two y…

We wrapped up the bathroom over a
week ago, but I've been holding off on posting pictures until the new
shower curtain arrived. That's my excuse at least. Bathroom Before - Large, but the space was poorly utilized.Bathroom After - Smaller, but greatly improvedShower Before - A cracking fiberglass surround with 40 years of hard water buildup.Shower After - Porcelain tile with a marble, metal and glass mosaic that gleams in the sun.I had originally planned on cool tones but I love how the warm bronze and champagne liven up the accent tileHeated tile floor - I loved the tile so much that I've decided to use it in the laundry and basement bathroom as well.New
slim vanity (Don't pay attention to the unfinished door and trim.
We'll be installing our new doors after the hardwood floors are in.)The
sun tunnel makes a huge difference in the room. Even though it's on
the north side of the house it lets in a lot of light. A week after
it's finished I still …

It's been another long week of working on the bathroom. Luke spent most of his weeknights running drains and supply lines while I finished the drywall. I didn't bother with pictures because this is boring work that doesn't change the look of the bathroom.
But we did make some visual progress this weekend with getting the floor and shower tiled and installing the sun tunnel.
The floor looks amazing and we haven't even done the grout yet.

The shower isn't looking too shabby either.
We still have a lot of work to do, but hopefully we will be able to use the shower by the end of the week. In other news the new siding is 80% painted, we're still working on the bathroom and Luke is framing the basement. The last thing we need is another project so of course I had to go and do this.

After two years in the house we are finally getting a decent bathroom! I've had seven new bathrooms over the last ten years, so having to live with this mess after all those new bathrooms is making me crazy.
I slapped some antique white paint on the walls to tone down the green but this space has been driving me nuts for the last twenty-two months. So when Luke suggested that we start the remodel over the 4th of July weekend I jumped at the chance. Within a week we had bought our materials and installed a toilet in the basement bathroom (not exactly private, but more convenient that driving to the nearest gas station)

I even tested out a few tile patterns on the bathroom wall. It's actually an improvement and I should have taken a sharpie to the walls years ago.
We have a lot of changes to make. To begin with, the bathroom is larger than necessary. At 8'x9' it is the same size as our kitchen. It didn't take much debate before we agreed to change the bathroo…

Time
for a confession...this project has been finished for two weeks. I
took photos but it was too late in the day and they turned out very
dark. I took more pictures after work yesterday, but they turned out
even worse so I'm back to the original too-dark photos.

Anyway, I did finish the veneer. It took 55(ish) hours to install
approximately 150 sq ft of veneer and cost about $300 in materials.Since
it would have cost $150 to put on the regular lap siding the upgrade
only cost $150. Although I have a lot of time invested in
this project the results are worth it.Like the new siding, it helps to really make the new garage look like it
is part of the original house.Plus the
stone dresses up the entire facade. When we bought the house... Just a few weeks ago... And now You can see the color of the slate a little better in this shot.

We're
not quite done yet. I have to finish the front porch, texture the
foundation and eventually do something about the landscaping. But th…

Now that the siding is up and the garage door is painted it's time to put the stone veneer across the lower part of the house . Our neighbors are starting to think that we're going to live with tyvek forever. My brother and sister-in-law have a crazy of habit of coming over to help us with the house. During this visit they helped us get the scratch coat on and ready for the stone veneer. With four people on the job we were able to get the scratch coat on in just an hour and a half. My brother also helped us haul our "new" concrete mixer home. We got this ancient homemade monstrosity off of craigslist from a nice couple who just wanted it out of their driveway now that their project was over.

Last year when we were choosing siding for the house and new garage we toyed with the idea of using stone veneer again. I made my own slate veneer for our last two homes but finding a way to use it across the current house was a struggle. I made some very basic mock-ups of what the house would look like with a few different options (don't laugh too hard...I don't have photoshop).
Option 1 - Veneer on exposed foundation
While it would tie in with the veneer I intended to put across the front of the garage the effect on the house was too subtle.
Option 2 - Stone veneer up to the windows on the front.
This version involves a lot more work that option 1. However it also looks much better than option 1 so I decided to ahead with the extra work and expense. I did not have time to get the veneer on last fall so the front of the house has looked like this since November.
I have to install approximately 140 sq ft across the house and garage which will take quite a bit of time It …

It's been a while since I posted, but not because of lack of progress on the house. In the last few weeks Luke and I have both been putting in long days at work and tiring weekends on the house. When you saw it last the a back of the house had been wrapped and was weatherproof, but obviously there was a lot of work still to be done.
I neglected to take any photos while we were actually doing the work. But to sum it up we installed soffit and fascia and finally put up siding.

It took some extra calculations to make everything line up with the garage siding we installed six months ago but now the house and garage finally match.
The shake gables match the shake siding we used on the front of the garage. I thought it was a waste of time because the only time we see the east end of the house is while mowing the lawn, but it's a nice little detail that helps tie everything together.
Now that the siding is up I need to finish caulking, get it painted and start on the stone venee…